A Different Road – LORE
REVIEWED BY CRITIC, FILM BUFF & BEER CONNOISSEUR F.P. BLUCK
To the cavernous pit that is Cinema One. The handful of us sitting there were like leaves blowing around with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, substantial numbers had lined up for the Madagascar movie, the adults with dutiful looks. For it was still school holidays in the ACT and the day was bleak.
Previews for The Words , which is definitely worth a look, with Bradley Cooper (the current go-to man for many things) and Dennis Quaid* appearing to do fine things. And a French movie, not The Intouchables this time, about the struggle of a disregarded son to follow the winemaking footprints of his father. Yawn, shrug (Gallically).
I was after darker fare and found it in Lore, (that’s pronounced Law-ray, by the way, an abbreviation of the fine German name Hannelore). Before commenting briefly, it is prudent to observe that few would disagree that the Nazis were the most appalling people ever to walk the planet although a few have tried to emulate them. Nothing should ever get in the way of that truth.
Anyhow, the less than magical Reich that was Nazi Germany is in collapse as the film opens. The loyal Nazi family of an SS officer collect their belongings in a truck and head for the Black Forest, leaving Dad behind. After a time of growing desperation, the mother** tells their teenage daughter, Lore, to take the other children to their grandmother’s house near Hamburg. The two girls, two little boys and a baby set off on a long trip through a hell that is made even more punishing by the beautiful summer weather. They are exploited and frightened, and receive kindness only from Thomas, a resourceful if callous young man who may or may not be Jewish. His motive is unclear until the end.
See it for the snapshot of life and attitudes at a time and place when certainty was dissolving into grief and blame and everyone lied rather than admit the truth. See it for the wonderful sense of place, from the shaded forests to the open farmlands and then to the mudflats of Schleswig-Holstein. See it for performances that are more real than young actors should know how to offer. And see it for the reflection it offers on how the Nazis worked, through deceit and degradation of anyone they opposed.
The film is a German/Australian production and probably cost less than the coconut water and white omelette budget for Total Recoil .
* – not Randy Quald or Quade Cooper, either of whom would have looked ridiculous.
** – who demonstrates some of the personality characteristics that made the Nazis so popular.